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Commentary
Elephant in the Room: CITES and African Elephants
By By John Scanlon AO, Jonathan Barzdo, and Greta F. Iori - IISD SDG KNOWLEDGE HUB In Memoriam. Richard Leakey, Kenyan conservationist and paleoanthropologist The international community has been unable to put into place adequate safeguards to manage the trade, which has triggered the illegal killing of elephants for their ivory, fueled smuggling, and provided a cover for laundering. The mood of CITES parties in recent years has been to keep commercial international ivory trade closed. The success of the SDGs, the Global Biodiversity Framework, and the Paris Agreement on climate change is...
Jumbos in 3D could be coming to a zoo near you — an innovative model to keep elephants in the wild
By By Tamar Ron - Daily Maverick Can we find a way to support human-elephant conflict mitigation and coexistence at the local level, enable people around the world to enjoy viewing elephants, and at the same time enable the elephants to continue their natural lives undisrupted? An innovative win-win solution is proposed here, based on selling the rights for zoo visitors to view elephants via webcams. At the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of the Parties (COP) 19 in November 2022, it was decided — with the support of a great majority of the parties —...
News
South Africa: Twenty-five slaughtered elephants later, tourists in a viewing boat come under poachers’ gunfire
By Tony Carnie, Daily Maverick Tourists viewing elephants from a boat on the Jozini/Pongolapoort Dam in northern KwaZulu-Natal ducked for cover on Wednesday as suspected elephant poachers opened...
Zimbabwe: Six Elephants Found Dead Near Victoria Falls
By Pindula Six elephants that include four adults and two calves were recently found dead in a forest near Victoria Falls. Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) spokesperson...
Reaction units reduce poaching: ZimParks
By Obert Siamilandu, News Day Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) says the establishment of reaction units in Mana Pools National Park has reduced poaching levels and...
Press releases
Germany: Conservationists welcome withdrawal of federal government from hunting association CIC
By ProWildlife The species conservation organization Pro Wildlife welcomes the fact that the German government’s Agricultural ministry (led by the Greens) has terminated the Country’s membership in the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), because the organisation...
Studies
Save Africa’s forest elephants if you want the Congo rainforest to continue capturing carbon: Study
By Rajat Ghai - Down to Earth World’s second-biggest rainforest could lose 6-9...
Innovation in elephant dung analysis offers endless benefits for conservation
By Shaun Smillie - Daily Maverick Every pile of elephant dung holds a story...
Drivers and facilitators of the illegal killing of elephants across 64 African sites
By Timothy Kuiper, Res Altwegg, Colin Beale, Thea Carroll, Holly T. Dublin,...
Reports
Kenya’s Wildlife Conservancies
By Dr Adam Cruise Over the past 30 years, wildlife conservancies in Kenya have proliferated. There are currently 167 conservancies covering 11 percent of Kenya’s landmass. This is more than the area of national parks, which covers around eight percent of the total area. Kenya’s conservancies are...
About
The Journal of African Elephants was created by a group of concerned journalists, biologists and conservationists, who, after years of tracking and documenting the catastrophic decline of Africa’s elephant populations, have recognised the urgent need for a dedicated English and French news and commentary space to enhance and increase global awareness of the plight of Africa’s savanna and forest elephants. Our Commentary service, in particular, are writers that focus on the need to provide awareness of Africa’s elephants and affected surrounding human communities from a distinctly African perspective that, for the most part, is lacking in the dominance of Western media.